Great Neck South girls, boys fencing teams win Nassau titles
Great Neck Souths celebrates after winning the Nassau girls high school team fencing championship at Jericho High School in Jericho, N.Y., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. Credit: Derrick Dingle
It’s not the first time Great Neck South senior epeeist Justina Hom was tasked with winning the Rebels a county title. She stood in a similar spot two years ago, providing the winning touch in the 2024 county championship.
And when she did so again Tuesday at Jericho, the gym fell absolutely silent as Hom turned to shake the hand of opponent Alice Fu. Then Great Neck South coach Catie Sagevick screamed, her fists clenched, “Let’s go,” and pandemonium took over as Hom delivered No. 1 Great Neck South’s girls fencing team’s seventh county title in eight years with a 14-12 win over No. 3 Jericho.
“It’s especially sweet since it’s my senior year,” Hom said. “It’s really great to be able to go back [to the Long Island championship] after a bad loss last year.”
The girls team will be joined at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Long Island championship meet at Half Hollow Hills East by No. 3 Great Neck South boys fencing as well, which defeated No. 4 Wheatley/Roslyn, 14-6. The girls team will face Ward Melville/Port Jefferson/Rocky Point/Comsewogue and the boys team will face Commack/Northport.
Hom represented an epee trio of Selina Wang and Ashley Nguyen that won seven of its eight bouts for Great Neck South (13-0). Wang set up Hom’s winning touch with a 5-3 win over Kate Kim.
“It’s a surreal experience,” Wang said. “I feel really honored to be a part of such a great epee group. Everyone’s so talented, everybody works hard. They really have confidence, and they don’t let anything get in their way.”
Foilist Emma Kandalaft went 2-1, including a crucial 1-0 win over Ilana Cai with 2.89 seconds left and a 5-2 win over foilist Ashka Shah of Jericho (11-3).
“They’re so driven and so motivating, it’s inspiring,” Sagevick said. “I absolutely love their motivation, their vibe, their energy, because it keeps me going too.”
Across the gymnasium Great Neck South’s boys fencing team appeared in its eighth consecutive county final and retook the county crown it lost a year ago. But the team appeared to start on the wrong foot when senior sabreist Brandon Reed rolled his ankle just two touches into the second bout of the meet.
After a stoppage for treatment, Reed returned to beat Elvin Lai, 5-3, and finish 3-0.
“I just let my body take control — muscle memory took over — and it worked out,” Reed said.
Along with sabre captain Brendan Chen — who Reed praised for his teaching ability to better him and the other sabreists — and Lawrence Lam, Great Neck South’s sabre team won seven of its eight bouts.
Ryan Zhao followed the sabre team with a momentum-shifting 5-3 win for Great Neck South (11-2) over reigning Nassau foil champion Charles Lee. It would be the only foil win for the Rebels against a stout trio of Charles and Tommy Lee, and Joshua Oh for Wheatley/Roslyn (10-3).
“There’s an old saying that goes, ‘Anyone can beat anyone on any given day,’” coach Joshua Baravarian said. “And that happened today.”
Epeeists Amir Karimov, Max Tse and Matthew Wu all went 2-0, with Wu adding an impressive 3-2 win over Erik Singh.
“I know our team is going to take Long Island this year, just like we did in 2024,” Karimov said.
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
